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Researchers from the Stanford School of Medicine say traumatic stress affects the brains of girls and boys differently.

According to the government, PTSD, or the post-traumatic stress disorder, is not an isolated case affecting adults and veterans only. In fact, it can happen to anyone–including young boys and girls.

A number of factors can increase the chance that a person will develop it. It is also frightening to know that many of those ‘factors’ are not under the person’s control.

In a new study published by the Stanford School of Medicine, it was revealed that traumatic stress affects the brains of adolescent girls and boys differently. Among those with PTSD, the team has found that there are structural differences between the sexes in one region of the brain called insula. It detects cues from the body and processes emotions and empathy.

The said region also helps to integrate a person’s actions, feelings and other brain functions.

According to the research’s senior author, Victor Carrion, MD, the insula appears to play “a key role” in the development of post-traumatic stress disorder. The difference they saw between girls’ and boys’ brains is important as it may help explain differences in trauma symptoms between sexes, he added.

Carrion, MD, is a professor of psychiatry and behavioral science at Stanford.

Among young people exposed to traumatic stress, some have developed PTSD but others don’t, the research published at the Depression and Anxiety journal revealed. Among those with post-traumatic stress disorder, some may experience flashbacks of traumatic events. Some may also avoid places or people, and things that could remind them of the trauma. Those people may suffer other problems too including difficulty sleeping or concentrating, and even social withdrawal.

The team conducted MRI scans of brains of fifty-nine participants (ages nine to seventeen), with fourteen girls and sixteen boys who had trauma symptoms. Meanwhile, twenty-nine others which they call the control group didn’t have the symptoms. As a whole, participants had similar IQs and ages. Of the participants with PTSD symptoms, at least five had experienced one episode of trauma, as the remaining twenty five had experienced two or more of such, or had been exposed to chronic trauma.

Scientists saw no difference in brain structure between the sexes in the control group. Among the group with PTSD symptoms, however, they saw differences in a portion of the insula called the anterior circular sulcus. This region in the brain had larger volume and surface area in the traumatized boys group compared to the boys in the control group. Interestingly, insula’s volume and surface area were smaller in girls with PTSD symptoms than those in the control group.

The findings of the paper could help clinicians, said the team.

Megan Klabunde, the lead author of the research, said that it is important that people who work with traumatized young people consider the “sex differences.”

Klabunde, PhD, is an instructor of psychology and behavioral sciences.

“Our findings suggest it is possible that boys and girls could exhibit different trauma symptoms.” Klabunde added, “They might benefit from different approaches to treatment.”

The insula normally changes during a person’s childhood and adolescence, said Klabunde. Smaller insula volume is typically seen when children and teenagers grow older. However, their findings suggests that traumatic stress could contribute to accelerated cortical aging of the insula in girls who develop post-traumatic stress disorder.

She also underscored some studies suggesting that high levels of stress could contribute to early puberty in girls.

Like other research, the team say a follow-up study is needed to better understand the findings, which would follow traumatized young people of both sexes over time. They added that studies that further explore how post-traumatic stress disorder might manifest itself differently in girls and boys, and tests of whether sex-specific treatments are beneficial, are needed.

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“Our findings suggest it is possible that boys and girls could exhibit different trauma symptoms.” Klabunde added, “They might benefit from different approaches to treatment.”
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This study does nothing of the kind. It was always possible that boys and girls could have different symptoms. This study sheds absolutely no light on the probability of that whatsoever.

This is an anatomical study, with a small N value, and it most definitely doesn’t say anything about treatment. That is a researcher trying to talk up her research to get publication or funding. Inaccurate and irresponsible, and it teaches the public to misinterpret scientific studies.

Scientists and practitioners need to model proper use of information obtained from scientific research, and science reporters need to do the same.

We’re creating a culture where science seems like voodoo to the public, and that’s why they can’t tell the difference between the two, and that’s why they vote for people who play to that.